Academic DegreesDoctorate, Institute of Biological Chemistry of the University of Pavia

Departmental AffiliationInternational Health

Phone:
410-614-4483
Fax:
410-955-0196

Research and Professional Experience

The Involvement of Retinoids in Carcinogenesis and Differentiation

There is general agreement that carcinogenesis results from alterations in normal differentiation pathways. It is also well documented that retinoids are essential for the maintenance of normal epithelial differentiation and function. Our research effort tests the hypothesis that something goes fundamentally wrong in the metabolism and function of retinoids during the process of carcinogenesis in general and that this may significantly contribute to malignant progression. Indeed we have found that in certain human breast cancer cells the rexinoid receptor RXR is confined to the splicing factor compartment and as such not available for transcription regulation by rexinoids. When disengaged from that compartment it renders the cells apoptotic in response to rexinoids, thereby offering a possible new way to control cancer cell growth in the human breast.

Keywords

nutrition and cancer

carcinogenesis

cell differentiation

Honors and Awards

Visiting Lecturer, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1971-1972 Visiting Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of Tokyo, April and May l976

Mead Johnson Award for Research in Nutrition from the American Institute of Nutrition, 1978 President, NCI Assembly of Scientists, 1982

Gold Medal Award of the City of Maglie, Italy, April 15, 1985

NCI EEO Special Achievement Award, September, 1987

Rockefeller Foundation Scholar, Bellagio, Italy, March, 1988

Visiting Professor, Golgi Institute of Pathology, University of Pavia, Italy, April and May, 1988

Visiting Professor, Department of Histology and General Embryology, University of Rome, Italy, March-April, 1993 Visiting Professor, First Department of Medicine, Gifu, Japan, May 14-27, 1993